Sabbatical #6: Sabbatical Plans Changing?

My plans during this sabbatical were to get away and spend extended time with God. My relationship seems pretty dry and mechanical at this point. I’m certainly not in a place I want to lead from. So I was looking forward to slowing down and spending that time with God to re-connect and rebuild some of those areas where I feel I’m deficient.

But as I have been going to sessions and dealing with my propensity to be alone and lack of deep relationships, I’m troubled. And I wonder if I don’t need to re-shape my plans to spend more time with people. Since there’s plenty of family time, some of that will be natural. But it is probably something I need to build better into my life, particularly a “spiritual friendship” and/or “spiritual mentorship.” I don’t even know exactly what they look like, but I feel like I’m missing them and I need them badly.

But this isn’t an either/or thing. I spent some solitude time at Starbucks today. The goal was to be silent before God. Despite the fact that I was doing it in the midst of the disco and then Latin mix of music, it was a good time. I usually come to God with an agenda. Not this time. I just waited. I never do that. It was nice. I imagined God was in the chair across from me and I just waited. I felt like there was some things He was telling me. And then I felt the liberty to pray (not out loud, I’m in Starbucks!). It was the prayer of relationship, of conversation more than a laundry-list prayer of my needs. It felt like a relationship more than it has in a long time. Here’s the process of “Silent Prayer” suggested by my workshop leader, Mindy Caliguire.

* Set aside time to sit in silent prayer.
* Think of a prayer word that describes your relationship with God at that particular time.
* Enter this time of silent prayer by acknowledging your desire to be attentive to God.
* Sit quietly, resting in the reality of God’s presence.
* When distracting thoughts come, gently let them go. Use your prayer word to bring your attention back to God.
* At the end of your time, thank God for His presence and ease back into the activities of your day.

Practice 20 minutes twice per day.

Because discussion went so long, the details weren’t totally explained, but it was helpful to set aside 20 minutes of un-agenda-ed time. I hope this is helpful for you. It was for me, though it will be of little use if it doesn’t become a practice.